Creating RSS feeds

You can create RSS feeds to help team members stay up-to-date on projects, even when they are not using Helix ALM. RSS feeds are based on filters, which you can publish to make a feed available to others. Items that pass the filter are displayed in the feed. For example, management wants to keep all team leads aware of critical open customer issues. You can create a filter that includes open issues with Critical selected in the Severity field and then publish the filter.

Before publishing filters to create RSS feeds, make sure the Helix ALM Published Data CGI is installed, RSS feeds are enabled for the project, and you have security permissions to mark filters as published.

Note:  Helix ALM data in RSS feeds can be viewed by anyone, not just Helix ALM users and customers. Make sure that feeds do not contain confidential information.

Installing the Helix ALM Published Data CGI

Make sure the Helix ALM Published Data CGI (ttpubdata.exe) is installed and hosted on a web server. The CGI is installed during Helix ALM Server installation in the web server's default CGI directory by default. See the installation help for information.

Enabling RSS feeds for the project

To generate URLs for subscribing to RSS feeds, enable RSS feeds for the project and specify the Helix ALM Published Data CGI URL in the project options. See Setting hyperlink project options.

Enabling security commands for published filters

Make sure the following commands are enabled for your security group: Mark Filter as Published, Edit Published Filters, Delete Published Filters, and Duplicate Published Filters.

Keep in mind that anyone can view data in RSS feeds so you may only want to enable these commands for security groups that include administrative or other high-level users. See Editing security groups.

Publishing filters

1. Choose View > Filters to open the Filters list window.

2. Select the filter to publish and click Edit.

The Edit Filter dialog box opens.

3. Select Publish from the Share list.

4. Click OK to save the changes.

The filter is published. The RSS icon is displayed next to the filter in the Filters list window.

Users can add the URL for the published filter to their RSS aggregator or you can add it to an internal web page. See Accessing RSS feeds.